


The Nine In Code

by HyperKey



Series: Chronological Order [22]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 14:22:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16176878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperKey/pseuds/HyperKey
Summary: When Emma is faced with a deep seated fear, things become chaotic.





	The Nine In Code

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PinkAxolotl85](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkAxolotl85/gifts).



> A product of a looooong conversation Axo and I had.  
> Wanna join in on the fun?  
> Join my DBH Discord. Guaranteed free of toxic people! https://discord.gg/PRNvwpu
> 
> As always, comments are very much appreciated
> 
> This is part of a continuous series, so things are connected to other fics.

Gavin jumped back on a reflex when his partner lunged at him. Never before had Cory approached him like this. And now he was trapped in a corner of the living room, victim to the booming voice of the RK900.

Gavin hadn’t even known that he was able to yell. And he was loud. Emma would wake up from it, no doubt.

He was picked up by his collar, shoved against the wall. Two blue, almost glowing eyes bored into him, LED a bright red. He had made the android mad, but the detective had no time to appreciate the succeeded effort.

After almost a year Cory had finally broken through the weird bouts of emotion ad let go of all of it. And It ended him Gavin being manhandled.

He wasn’t sure anymore if Cory would keep himself from hurting anyone, and the thought made his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. There was no way Cory would harm him, would he?

“If you do something to me, you’ll lose your job.” He tried. Voice calm and measured.

It had no effect on the angry android. “I don’t care! You constantly do this n purpose! Do you know how this _feels_ like?!”

Gavin’s joy at the fact was overshadowed by how threatening Cory was when he wanted to be. At this point he wasn’t even sure if Cory knew what he was doing.

“Calm down, you’ll wake the whole house!” Gavin hissed, grabbed the android’s dark shirt.

Firm hands lifted Gavin off the ground and shoved him against the wall. Hard enough to cause pain, not enough to hurt him. But the determination in the almost glowing eyes set something off in him. It rattled a feeling awake that he had buried deep inside. One he had thrown away and hidden between determination and professionalism. And possibly a little bit of rudeness.

Fear.

And as his heart hammered against his chest, and Cory continued to push him against the wall, Gavin saw a shadow of something rush into the dark living room. Then, mere seconds later Cory dropped like a bag of sand.

A girl shrieked. Emma.

“Fuck.” Gavin hissed once he had the carpet back under his feet. He couldn’t see much, but what he was seeing was horrible on its own. Blue blood was spilling from a wound in Cory’s body, right where one of the most vital biocomponents sat. A kitchen knife protruded from the wound.

Emma knew exactly what spot to go for to make an android useless. No doubt she had learned that from research.

“Fuck!” Gavin screamed and lunged to towards the downed android. “Turn the lights on! And get my phone!” he shouted at Emma, unable to respect her terror and her fear of androids.

She had only accepted Cory because he wasn’t deviant. And now that had changed.

The lights illuminated the living room and the convulsing android. There was little Gavin knew about the RK900, only that he was more advanced than the previous model. The glasses Cory used to block his advanced sensors when he wasn’t working had slipped off his face, he was shaking, hands and feet jerking violently in unpredictable directions, almost as if he had a seizure, but that wasn’t it.

He braced his hands on Cory’s shoulders, tried to calm him down, through all the errors and warnings he was undoubtedly receiving.

“B-But- he was attacking y-you-“ Emma stuttered as she handed Gavin the phone.

“Forget about that! Get the fucking blood!”

The girl flinched, rushed away again and Gavin grimaced at the choking sounds coming from the android on the floor. To ease his discomfort, he turned Cory to his side, examined the knife in the biocomponent. Gavin knew this was one of the sturdiest parts of an android. The knife had slipped off the flat and unforgiving surface and Emma had driven it into the softer and less protected material besides, at an angle.

Cory was grasping at the carpet, searching for something to hold on to while his eyes were wide and he desperately tried to breathe through the blood in his throat. It was constantly leaking over his lips and from the wound in his abdomen. Two small puddles of thirium had already appeared when Gavin finally made the call to his brother.

It was 4 am. Elijah was most likely asleep.

He cursed, almost ripped the bottles of thirium from Emma’s grasp and the girl went down on her knees then, shook violently as she watched what was happening. The distress the android was in wasn’t lost on her, but she felt numb to it.

Gavin supported the android with his hands and legs, hand one hand on his shoulder, the other on his chest. Both to keep him from moving.

As the android kept trying to breathe, and made more and more distressed sounds Gavin cursed at his phone and redialed his brother’s number.

This time he picked up immediately, but he sounded tired and unwilling to hold a conversation. “What…?” He grumbled into the speaker.

“Nines is dying, we need you over here. Now. Immediately.” Gavin growled. He rarely ever called him by that nickname when others were listening. It was just a thing between them. Right then he didn’t care enough.

“Hold on-“

“Get a fucking move on! He’s been stabbed. I think the regulator is damaged. We’re at the apartment. Get going!” the Detective barked.

Elijah cursed. Gavin could hear various items clatter to the ground before the call was abruptly ended.

The detective was now gently rubbing a hand over his partner’s back, unable to think of the mandatory android first-aid course they had been forced to take a few months back.

“Shit…” he hissed. Cory was on a completely different scale too.

He did remember the distress call that would automatically be sent to the Station in situations like these. The closest patrol would then be sent to the location, accompanied by a technician.

It was still just after four AM. Cindy was at home, that only left Ryan who had probably been thrown out of bed as well.

“Help’s on the way.” He tried to reassure his friend.

Cory showed no signs of having heard his voice, and Gavin found that he didn’t need him to respond. Emma was still sitting beside the two, tears streaming down her face, dripping into her t-shirt. She kept trying to suppress sobs, wiped at her face.

“I was scared!” she sobbed eventually. It almost sounded like an accusation. “I didn’t…. I couldn’t…. I- I-“

“Emma…” Gavin’s voice was calm now, silent. Despite the obvious anger in his eyes. It wasn’t directed at Emma. The girl had reacted in the only way she knew how to. “I need you to calm down, okay? Can you do that?”

She nodded wordlessly and curled in on herself after she grasped a blanket off the couch.

“Good. We both need to keep cool heads now. Sorry I yelled at you.”

Emma nodded firmly and wiped her tears away. “Okay. W-what do I need to do?”

“There will be someone ringing the doorbell, my brother has a key but the distress signal was probably sent to the closest patrol too.” He explained.

Just as he said that a key clinked at the front door and Elijah stepped into the hallway. The man looked around for a second, then headed into the Living room as it was the only room with its lights on. Once he entered the room he immediately put down his bag and knelt down in front of Cory.

“I don’t even want to know how this happened.” He sighed as he opened the black bag and placed various packaged items onto the carpet.

He connected cables to Cory’s neck and his LED and slotted both of them into a laptop. He then carefully turned the android to his back and ripped the shirt apart to get a better look at the wound. Gavin thought he was going to feel sick at the sight.

“Heavy damage to Regulator, frame scraped, skin impaled. Two thirium lines severed.” Elijah’s lips turned into a thin line as he ripped open a few packages with items Gavin had no name for. Possible replacements for the severed thirium lines.

“I can repair all of the damage, except for the Regulator. That one on is fried beyond repair.” He explained as he gripped the hilt of the knife and braced one hand against Cory’s abdomen before he slowly pulled the knife out of the wound.

The android grunted in distress, undoubtedly because of new warnings and timers flaring in his vision. He was visibly in distress, panicked.

Gavin was about to yell at his brother when Elijah shook his head. “I thought something like this might be the case and brought an external system. It’s not as efficient, but it does the job. He has to stay in low power mode until I got a new regulator, however.”

Gavin only nodded, watched when his brother put the knife aside and clenched his teeth. It had been one of the big knives. Emma had most likely just grabbed the first she had found, but there was a small portion in his mind that told him the girl had intentionally reached for the biggest knife in the house.

Elijah moved with the precision only the creator of androids could have had. He pushed the damaged and bent panel aside, repaired the severed lines in a matter of minutes, and set up the external system to the thirium pump regulator.

Cory hadn’t said a single word and was lying still as a rock. He watched their every move, but it seemed that, apart from moving his head to the side, so he could breathe properly, he wasn’t intending to move any more.

“I’ll clear the thirium from your throat in a bit.” Elijah promised. “It’s really troublesome that they designed the RK900 like this.”

“Like what?” Gavin asked in confusion. He was sitting on the carpet now, cross-legged. One arm around Emma who had moved closer to him.

“The RK900 runs so many processes at once that it would immediately overheat if it stopped the cooling process. It cannot be turned off by the unit.” Cyberlife’s former CEO explained.

Gavin nodded. That made sense. He kept watching his brother and flinched violently when the door bell rang. Emma slowly stood and walked over to the door and answered it. Two minutes later Connor entered the apartment.

The girl flung herself at him was taken into surprised arms. “I did something horrible!” she screamed into his shirt, voice now muffled but definitely heard by the android.

“What happened?”

Instead of answering, Emma just grabbed his arm and pulled him into the living room where the other three males were still busy.

“Worst is already over.” Elijah muttered without looking up from connecting the external regulator to Cory’s system. He had drilled two holes into the protective panel to connect the tubes that cycled thirium through it. They went into a small machine that was plugged into the wall socket and gave off a silent hum when the man flicked the switch.

Cory went limp when the device started doing what it was supposed to do, LED now a dull red. It quickly faded into yellow.

Connor eyed the device with rising suspicion. “I got the distress signal- Should I call off Ryan and the patrol?”

Gavin nodded. “We got this.”

Connor mirrored the nod and looked over the android on the ground for a moment. Gavin got the rising suspicion that they were talking in a private channel.

“There is no need to worry.” Elijah muttered when he wiped his thirium stained hands on his pants and packed up his things. “He could technically be on that system indefinitely.”

“He’s useless like that.” Gavin growled. “Do I need to do anything?”

“The device has filters. They need to be changed every 48 hours. I’ll send Chloe over with spares later.” Elijah explained. “Another thing, the wound may leak thirium occasionally, and he is as risk for overheating. Keep a few bags of ice ready, and call me if things get worse.”

Gavin nodded and looked at Emma who was lingering close to Connor and shrunk back when their eyes met.

“It’s okay.” The detective sighed. “He woke you, you thought the worst, then saw him pinning me to the wall, you reacted correctly.”

The girl bit her trembling lip as fresh tears collected in her eyes and eventually dripped down her chin. “I didn’t- I thought-“

Gavin shook his head and opened his arms as an invitation for a hug. The girl quickly accepted it and barreled into the offered embrace. She clung to him, hands wrenched in his shirt as sobs shook her again.

Elijah and Connor quietly excused themselves and left the apartment.

A few minutes after Emma had returned to her room Cory rebooted and gasped in utter terror. “Don’t move.” Gavin ordered firmly and put light pressure onto his shoulders.

“Systems have entered low power mode.” The voice was cold, devoid of emotion.

Gavin shivered. “I know. You’ll be stuck in that for a while.” He looked at the device on the floor and the generous amount of cable length. Cory could probably explore into the kitchen if he wanted to.

“The external device is working far less efficient.”

“Yeah. You’ll be off duty until that’s fixed.”

The LED flickered red for a second, then spun back into yellow. Cory then carefully sat up. Mindful not to disturb the working of the small machine. Gavin wasn’t sure if it was the sight of it, but with a sudden surge the android heaved up thirium onto the carpet.

Gavin only grimaced.

“The system is expelling the excess thirium. Mr. Kamski has over filled the supply. Most likely intentionally, to prevent thirium shortage.”

“Great, so you’ll be puking now.”

“The correct term-“

“Shut up.” Gavin hissed. “You look like a fucking mess.”

Cory nodded, then squinted at Gavin and reached for the fallen pair of glasses. One he had put them back into his nose Gavin smirked at him. “Better. Let’s get you to the couch, I don’t want you sitting on the floor.”

The android reached for the offered hand and was carefully pulled to shaking and unbalanced legs. He stumbled into Gavin and almost made both of them fall. With a bit of effort Gavin managed to get him to the couch and helped him lie down. Cory insisted there was no need, but it made Gavin feel better about it.

He went to the bedroom then to grasp his blanket and pillow and a spare shirt for his partner. As he lingered at the closet, a pang of a long-buried memory flashed back into his mind.

An android, desperately trying to protect him, shot directly into the thirium pump by a stray shot of an officer’s gun. Hanks gun. It had been a stupid chain of horrible events and no one really was at fault for it.

But the android bled out and shut down permanently just minutes later. Elijah could have done nothing to save him.

He growled at the memory and slammed the closed door shut before he returned to the android in his living room.

“You are in distress, detective.” Cory mentioned casually.

“You’re in low power and can still analyze?”

“There is no need to analyze, it is obvious.”

Gavin snarled and tossed the shirt at his partner before he deposited the blanket and pillow on the armchair and turned on the small LED powered candles Emma had insisted on getting. He then turned off the ceiling lights and looked at Cory once more.

“I’ll go see how Emma is doing. You stay here.”

“Of course, detective.”

Gavin crossed his arms at the response. “Nines, you fucking screamed at me. You finally referred to yourself in first person. You actually slammed me into the wall. And yow you pretend that never happened?”

Once more the LED flickered red for a second. “There was a temporary glitch in the system. It will not occur again.”

“Bullshit!” Gavin yelled. “Did it ever occur to you that everyone _wants_ it to happen?!”

A frown made its way to the features of the android. “What do you mean?”

Gavin threw his arms in the air. “Whatever. Get some rest.”

“Gavin,” Cory muttered as the detective was almost out of the room. “ _I_ have been compromised.”

The eyes of the man lit up at the statement. “Fucking finally.”

 

 


End file.
